Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States eBook

Ex-Slave #18

INTERVIEW WITH (MRS.) MARIAH CALLAWAY EX-SLAVE

[TR: A significant portion of this interview
was repeated in typescript; where there was a discrepancy,
the clearer version was used. Where a completely
different word was substituted, ‘the original’
refers to the typewritten page.]

Mrs. Mariah Callaway sat in a chair opposite the writer
and told her freely of the incidents of slavery as
she remembered them. To a casual observer it
will come as a surprise to know the woman was blind.
She is quite old, but her thoughts were clearly and
intelligently related to the writer.

Mrs. Callaway was born in Washington, Wilkes County,
Georgia probably during the year 1852, as she estimated
her age to be around 12 or 13 years when freedom was
declared. She does not remember her mother and
father, as her mother died the second day after she
was born, so the job of rearing her and a small brother
fell on her grandmother, Mariah Willis, for whom she
was named. Mrs. Callaway stated that the old
master, Jim Willis, kept every Negro’s age in
a Bible: but after he died the Bible was placed
upstairs in the gallery and most of the pages were
destroyed. The following is a story of the purchase
of Mrs. Callaway’s grandfather as related by
her.

“My grandfather come directly from Africa and
I never shall forget the story he told us of how he
and other natives were fooled on board a ship by the
white slave traders using red handkerchiefs as enticement.
When they reached America, droves of them were put
on the block and sold to people all over the United
States.

The master and mistress of their plantation were Mr.
Jim Willis and Mrs. Nancy Willis who owned hundreds
of acres of land and a large number of slaves.
Mrs. Callaway was unable to give an exact number but
stated the Willises were considered wealthy people.
On their plantation were raised sheep, goats, mules,
horses, cows, etc. Cotton, corn and vegetables
were also raised. The Willis family was a large
one consisting of six children. 4 boys and 2 girls.
Their home was a large two-story frame house which
was set apart from the slave quarters.

Slave homes on the Willis plantation differed in no
respect from the usual type found elsewhere.
All homes were simple log cabins grouped together,
forming what is known as slave quarters.

The Willis family as kind and religious and saw to
it that their slaves were given plenty of food to
eat. Every Monday night each family was given
its share of food for the week. Each grown person
was given a peck of corn [TR: meal on original
page] and three pounds of meat; besides the vegetables,
etc. On Tuesday morning each family was given
an ample amount of real flour for biscuits.